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February 2013 Meeting Minutes

President Linda Orkin called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm. She welcomed all and encouraged any non-members to join the bird club community and to introduce themselves. Cyndy and Richard Tkachuck and Becky Hansen were thanked for bringing cookies. Meg Richardson and Marc Devokaitis signed up to provide them for the next meeting on March 11. Sharing recent notable bird sightings were Donna Scott—Pileated Woodpecker and Marie Read—Northern Shrike

Jan. 27: Bill Baker led a trip the highlight of which was an Eared Grebe in Aurora

Feb 10: Marty Schlabach led a trip looking for Short-eared Owl. No owls were seen but lots of Snow Buntings, as well as Horned Larks and American Kestrels Upcoming field trips include:

Feb. 23: Recent Hot Spots. Ann Mitchell

March 2: Southern Highlands with the Cortland Bird Club: Matt Young

March 9: Recent Hot Spots. Meena Haribal

Further information is on the website: cayugabirdclub.org.

Linda Orkin mentioned the two books published by the bird club which have been useful and popular: Native Plants for Native Birds and Birding the Cayuga Lake Basin. Linda and Jane Graves will be at a table and selling these books at the Native Plants Symposium on March 1-2.

Cyndy and Richard Tkachuck, editors of the newsletter, asked for feedback on the newsletter.

There will be a clean-up at Stewart Park on March 30 from 9-11 a.m., according to Candace Cornell. Linda Orkin suggested a field trip through Renwick Woods prior to the clean-up.

The Great Backyard Birdcount is the weekend of Feb. 16. It entails three days of counting, and all are encouraged to participate Eric Sibbald, a freshman biology major from the Cornell Bird Club, read the list of the birds of the Cayuga Basin. The speaker was Irby Lovette, Director of the Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program at Cornell Lab of Orni- thology and Associate Professor in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His talk was entitled Jays of our Lives meets As the World Terns: the soap operas of avian mating behavior in the wild. He spoke of and animated amusingly the misconception of monogamy in the bird world and his finding that the Florida Scrub-Jay is both socially and genetically monogamous, a rare thing. He passed out Valentine’s cards celebrating that quality.